A list of movies for Fernanda

Dear readers, I realize I’ve been a bad blogger. Ever since I moved to Australia, I stopped writing, and I apologize for that. But I’m back to talk a little more about cinema. If you’re wondering about the title of this entry, let me tell you: no, I’m not going to make lists for everyone in the world, hahaha. There’s actually a story behind this. Recently, my friend Fernanda and I went to movies to see The Artist. Despite being unfamiliar with silent, black and white films, she loved it – as did I, by the way. And because she knows I’m into weird movies, she asked me for a list of films I thought she’d like. Well, here it is, in chronological order.

City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)

Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)

Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)

It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)

Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950)

Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)

The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)

I set a few criteria for myself: I had to choose at least one silent movie; most of the films had to be really old; at least one Aussie flick had to make the cut; without pushing it, I wanted as many genres as possible. It’s important to notice that these movies aren’t my particular favorites for a director, decade or genre, but I hold all of them in high esteem. So we have Chaplin’s City Lights representing the silent era. Peter Weir’s little-known mystery work Picnic at Hanging Rock is the local one. Europe’s amazing cinema of the 1940s shows up in the form of beautifully sensitive Brief Encounter and the masterpiece Bicycle Thieves. Two movies deal with topics similar to The Artist: Sunset Blvd. and Singin’ in the Rain – in very different forms, they show the consequences of the creation of sound pictures. To complete the list, we have possibly the best historical film ever – Gone with the Wind; one of the most dramatically intense westerns ever – The Searchers; Hitchcock’s ultra-famous Psycho; and possibly the cutest, most fluffy movie ever – Frank Capra’s unforgettable It’s a Wonderful Life.